Three versions of universalism

Faith and Philosophy

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 55-68

  Murray, Michael J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

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EID: 62449250333     PISSN: 07397046     EISSN: 21533393     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5840/faithphil19991613     Document Type: Article

References (21)

1. For example, Marilyn Adams: 'The Problem of Hell: A Problem of Evil for Christians" in Reasoned Faith, Eleonore Stump (ed.), Cornell University Press, 1993
2. "Divine Justice, Divine Love, and the Life to Come" Crux 13 (1976-7), pp. 12-28
3. "Hell and the Justice of God" Religious Studies 11 (1975), pp. 433-447
4. Thomas Talbott: "The Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment," Faith and Philosophy, 7 (1990), pp. 19-42
5. "Providence, Freedom, and Human Destiny" Religious Studies, 26 (1990), pp. 227-245.
6. Jonathan Kvanvig outlines the three major substitutes: "annihilation-ism" "second chance," and " universalism" in The Problem of Hell., New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 68,71,73.
7. Four Views on Hell, William Crockett (ed.), Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992
8. Through No Fault of Their Own, William Crockett and James Sigountos (eds.), Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991
9. J. Ronald Blue, "Untold Billions: Are They Really Lost?" The Bib Sac Reader, John Walvoord and Roy Zuck (eds.), Chicago: Moody Press, 1983. pp. 233-246.
10. Examples include: Richard Swinburne, "A Theodicy of Heaven and Hell," The Existence and Nature of God, Alfred Freddoso (ed.), Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986, pp. 37-54
11. Stephen T. Davis, "Universalism, Hell, and the Fate of the Ignorant," Modern Theology, January 1990, pp. 173-185.
12. D.P. Walker in The Decline of Hell (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963, p. 67) claims that no one has in fact endorsed such a view. Marilyn Adams entertains the possibility that God acts in this way, though it would go too far to say she endorses this view. At most Adams says that it may be better, all things considered, to instantaneously transform some who are unregenerate at death (see her article "Divine Justice, Divine Love, and the Life to Come," Crux, volume 13, 1976-7, esp. pp. 22-26). I will discuss this view of Adams in more detail below.
13. John Hick, Evil and the God of Love, New York: Harper and Rowe, 1966, p. 292.
14. Richard Swinburne, The Existence of God, Oxford: Claredon Press, 1979, pp. 200-224.
15. George Schlesinger, "The Scope of Human Autonomy," Our Knowledge of God, ed. Kelly James Clark. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992, pp. 215-223.
16. This is essentially the move made by Thomas Talbott in "The Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment," pp. 36-7.
17. David Lewis develops an anti-theistic argument from something like this possibility in a recent essay ("Evil For Freedom's Sake?" in Philosophical Papers, November 1993).
18. Talbott makes this argument in a number of places. See as one example, "The Doctrine of Evaerlasting Punishment," p. 37.
19. A universalist might be inclined to respond "tu quoque" at this juncture. But there are numerous accounts of the purpose of the earthly life by those who maintain a traditional view on hell. For example, Eleonore Stump, "The Problem of Evil," Faith and Philosophy, 2 (1985), pp. 392-418
20. Richard Swinburne, "A Theodicy of Heaven and Hell", op. cit.
21. This is in fact the conception that Talbott defends in, for example, his "Providence, Freedom, and Human Destiny", p. 231-3.